World at Large
by Great Northern
Summary: Statistics show that children who were neglected are more likely to grow into being a criminal.
1. Chapter 1

Well, this has been bothering me for a while. I know there are a ton of other stories like this, but probably that's because it's an idea that is just so unexplained that we have to explore it more. Some parts may seem strange, or not normal, but just bare with me. This is all coming from my imagination and personal experiences, so it may suck, but hey, nobody is judging me…I hope.

So, sit back, and enjoy.

_14% of all males in prison in the USA were neglected as children._

Neal Caffery threw a small pebble at the wall, watching it bounce off, then take several leaps backwards to land centimeters away from his right foot. He didn't bother looking for it after that, just picked up one more, and started the cycle all over again.

Jail was a lot of things. It smelled, the food was less then gourmet, and the people were either (a) some form of tough gang since they were five, (b) the only class they experienced was english until the fourth grade, or (c) a combination of the two with a little muscle and a lot of hair thrown in.

There were several other White Collar criminals, though they seemed to be hiding from him and whenever he approached one to discuss perhaps a new painting or how he wished to visit one museum, they seemed more interested in sliding their arm up his leg then actually listening.

That seemed bad enough for a high-class, clean-cut, alleged art theif like himself, but the thing that made jail worse then anything at all was this: it was boring.

He had tried everything to keep himself entertained. He swiped a deck of cards and played every card game known to man at least thirty times before deciding that playing with himself was what social rejects did at recess. He had done drawings on the floor with rocks and pebbles that he found, but none of them really matched up to his stolen set of colored pencils that he had owned on the other side.

The boredom was everywhere…silently killing off his spirit until he was walking the halls with a hunch in his back and a dead look in his eyes that told people one simple fact: he was bored. Neal didn't enjoy being bored, that was one of the many reasons why he choose a less then legal job for his 9-5 job.

Being a criminal had been thrilling. He enjoyed racing from that pain in the ass FBI agent, Peter Burke, and enjoyed the rush of adrenalin he had each time after stealing, forging, or one of his many White Collar activities.

Kate had also enjoyed the rush of the job. She would be right by his side when he suggested an idea that usually had Mozzie saying, "Are you insane!" Mozzie was the logical one of the group, he and Kate were the wild, restless adrenalin junkies. Neal supposed it was good to have the bald man around, just to make sure they didn't end up dead or in prison.

Turns out, Mozzie lacked in that last part of his job description.

Neal had been in jail for a month almost and he was still in shock from the fact that Peter Burke had caught him. He had been positive that he had that idiot agent chasing his lead from him that happened three days earlier, but when he exited his car on the Pennslyvania border, ready to crack open a bottle of wine with some old friends, there had been the feds.

Now, thanks to a group of backstabbing friends and one _very_ persistent FBI agent, he was stuck in the brain-rotting place they called prison.

Neal knew what to exepect from prison, he had several friends who had been here before, but still, the boredom and stink took him by surprise. He wasn't he could last another four minutes, minus four years.

He sighed as he threw another pebble at the wall, trying to think of anything that could entertain him until the guards came to release them to the yard. At least there he could participate in the usual poker games that went on, maybe win something from the gullible prisonmates.

"Caffery, that's the fifth time you've sighed in the last seventeen minutes," a voice commented in a very dull tone from the other cell next to his.

"Why do you keep count, Lorzano?" Neal had quickly realized the third day of his sentence that if you wanted to sound tough, you called people by their last names. Nowadays, he _only_ introduced himself as Caffery.

"Do you think you're the only person whose bored as hell in this place? I've been here for five years and the most entertaining thing I've ever done here was get into a fight with half of the guards and my cell mate. I got locked up in solitarily confinment, but still, it was worth it to find some peace from this."

"You know I don't like violence or-"

"Or guns. Caffery, I'm pretty sure even the warden whose never even come down to this damn place knows that."

"Well, I don't like them."

"You're a felon, being fond of violence is in your job description."

"Must have missed that on the interview," Neal said in a very dry tone. Lorzano was an alright guy for a criminal, but his felonies involved much more violence then Neal would ever appreciate, making the man a little afriad of him.

"You're funny, you know that. Would have made a great mobster if you had a liking for violence," Lorzano said and Caffery could picture the man leaning against the wall, slicking back his greasey black hair with a smooth move with his hand.

"Oh, what a shame."

"Why don't you enjoy guns? They're so entertaining if you know how to use one properly. You do know how to use one, right?"

"Yes."

Lorzano breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh thank goodness. Did you know that learning how to shoot a gun is in the man's handbook? It's right there next to banging hot chicks and drinking fourty cent whiskey straight from its diseased lid."

"Don't worry, I read that page."

"You must have skipped the page about loving guns more then your wife. I mean, what's not to love about them. You cock them up, take aim, then let them loose on some poor son of a bitch's ass and watch him squirm on the ground like an ant under a magnifying glass. Now that is a sight to see."

"Please, shut up," Neal said, feeling his face go pale and his stomach to start churning at the man's somewhat vivid description of a person getting shot.

"So, tell me Caffery, why don't you like guns?"

"It's a long story…"

"Where are we going to go?" Lorzano asked in a tone that for some reason annoyed Neal much more then the oily man himself.

"Can you please just shut up and drop it!" He shouted and heard the footsteps of a guard approach.

Neal was about to shout that they were alright when Lorzano covered it for him. "We're alright, no bloodshed." The footsteps retreated. "Caffery, you can tell me anything. People tell me their damn secrets all the time. Sometimes I think my head is going to explode."

"It's not sometime I'm fond of talking about."

"Of course it isn't, then why else would it be a secret."

Neal rolled his eyes. "Alright, do you really want to hear?"

"Very much so, Master Caffery."

He took a deep breath and began to unload his past that not even the crazed FBI agent who had hunted him down for three years knew. "Well, when I was a child, I had a less then happy childhood…if you want to put it nicely."

"Oh shit, is this going to be one of those sob stories that I hear about like abuse and recovering and then finding your faith with Jesus? Because my ma told me enough of that shit to last me a lifetime…and one after that."

"No. I was never pyschically abused…more like…another way that in my opinion, hurt a lot worse."

"Then why do you hate violence if you weren't abused by your parents?"

Neal sighed, all the memories he had been pushing down for the last few years resurfacing. "A lot more people can hurt you then your parents."

Lee Cox swung his short feet, desperately trying to get the swing he was currently sitting on to move. His older siblings could push the swings with ease, allowing themselves to fly high in the sky, almost high enough to touch the birds.

His older brother, Daniel, said he had once caught a Bald Eagle then wrestled it to the ground. Their father had helped him tie it up then chop it up and cook it for dinner. Of course, this had been before Lee was born, so he wouldn't remember, but according to his five older siblings, it really happened and had been quite a feast.

Ever since then, Lee had been obsessed with being able to push himself to the top of the clouds on the swing, but so far, his efforts remained fruitless. Now, this didn't appear fair to Lee since he had seen other little boys like him go much farther on the swings then Lee had ever gone. He just didn't understand it at all.

His oldest brother, Jared, explained that their family didn't have a lot of green stuff so they couldn't buy as much food to make him big and strong like the other boys his age. Apparently, in the adult world, green stuff could get you anything you wanted, and it seemed unfair to the little five-year-old that his family didn't have enough.

"Do you need help, Lee," his oldest sister, Alexis, asked. She was almost ten years old and all of a sudden, she thought she was the queen on everything. Jared, who was thirteen, called her something called a bitch. When Jared found out Lee had overheard, he had made him pinkie swear that he would never tell Dad about it and Lee had kept it a secret ever since.

"No! I can do it!" Lee replied, turning his head away from his sister and attempting even harder to push with his legs. He gave one final, giant push, and moved a little bit more then Lee could ever remember doing. "I moved!"

"Good job, now we have to go home," Alexis said, and reached for his hand. Lee shook his head and retracted his hand.

"No! I want more!" Alexis sighed and grabbed him, dragging him out of his seat and across the playground, the whole time, he had been pouting.

"Wow, you want to be a little bit more harsh there?" Daniel said as Alexis walked over. Daniel was twelve and was three inches taller then Jared which made his oldest brother very angry all the time.

"Shut up," Alexis said and stuck out her tongue. "Where's Mimi and Sam?" Lee's youngest siblings were twins, both seven years old, and were the best of friends, which often made Lee jealous that he didn't have a twin to be best friends with. He yelled at his dad for a twin, but his dad had replied that in order to have a twin, he needed a Mom which they didn't have, thanks to Lee.

Lee didn't talk to his daddy for three hours after that, finally breaking his vow when he asked his daddy for the ketchup.

"They're on the monkey bars."

Alexis rolled her eyes. "So, go get them! Jared says to be home by six o' clock, and it's almost five-thirty!"

Daniel stuck his tongue out at his sister and then turned to Lee. "C'mon, let's go get Mimi and Sam and then go home without mean ole Alexis."

Lee nodded and grabbed Daniel's hand, "Ha, you're mean!" He said, looking at Alexis who crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.

"You're teaching him bad things."

"Whatever," Daniel said, walking away with Lee in tow. Mimi and Sam were sitting by the monkey bars, looking up at the quickly darkening sky, whispering secrets to and fro. "Come on you two, we're going home for dinner."

"Get up sleepy heads! Get up! Get up!" Lee encouraged.

Mimi looked up and poked her twin to get up as well. "We're coming Lee, calm down."

Daniel patted him on the back, saying, "They're getting up. Take a chill pill lil' fellow."

Lee nodded, feeling all the energy from the day of swinging and playing around like regular five-year-olds did coursing through his body. "Can I play some more?"

"No, we're going home to eat. Don't you want to eat?"

Lee felt the pains of hunger in his stomach, but those were always there. He never experienced a day without feeling every pain of hunger gnawing away at his stomach. Lee was worried that one day his stomach would eat a hole right through his stomach and burst out.

Mimi and Sam stood up, quickly brushing themselves off before walking out with Daniel and Lee, ready to go home, to a place where they faced many more problems then the pains of hunger.

"So, you hate guns because your Dad couldn't afford to feed you?" Lorzano asked in a confused manner.

"No. There's much more to this story."

"Then spill, Caffery, we still have another three hours until they come to let us out to the yard."

"Hold on, it's hard to relive your past all at once," Neal said, and closed his eyes, trying to focus on something other then the hellish things he faced as a young child all the way up to being eightteen.

Oh my gosh! Boring first chapter over! Please, stick around, next chapter should be up and running tomorrow, and trust me, there will be some more answers.

Also, in case you didn't know, Lee was Neal…just you know, younger and with a different first/last name.


	2. Chapter 2

_One in twelve people worldwide is malnourished, including 160 million children under the age of 5._

Lee hardly saw his oldest brother, Jared. On the rare occasion that he did, his brother was always giving out orders or telling him to finish what meager food items he had on his plate. His older brother seemed like he never got to have fun like Lee or the twins did.

Lee was sad that Jared never got to come to the park with them or even color with him. Jared had been the one who had given Lee his first set of colored pencils in the first place, and ever since that fateful day, Lee had been drawing and coloring away, each picture a little more skilled then the next.

According to Alexis, Jared was helping their father bring in the green stuff, but really, Jared was doing all the work. Apparently, their father spent their money on a funny tasting liquid that Lee had tried once, but Daniel had snatched it away from him and lectured him for a full five minutes on the danger of that strange tasting liquid.

Which seemed weird and unnecessary since it tasted bad to Lee anyway and he had no intentions of ever trying it again. Unlike their father who seemed to drown the stuff by the bottle hourly.

The five Cox children walked up to their small house, walking in silence as they approached the place they called home. There were only five rooms in the house, three bedrooms, a bathroom, and their living room/kitchen connected all the rooms of the walls were peeling and the carpet was pee and blood stained, and more often then not, Lee found a rat under his bed, but still, it was all they ever would have.

Their father was mumbling something to himself as he removed his coat and took a seat on the broken down couch, making all the springs bounce and creak. Each of his children mumbled a soft "Hello," before removing their own ratty coats and placing them near their father's.

"When does school start for you?" the father asked, his voice rumbling and sounding croaky, like the insides of his throat were shaking with the very words he spoke.

"It already did, today is a Sunday," Alexis explained in her softest tone, knowing how easily upset their father would get after a day of supposedly hard work.

Lee knew this conversation well, as did every other child. Their father would always ask them about school, then they would simply reply that it had already started or that they were learning everything they needed to. Daniel had said that it was because their father wanted them to become smart and rich so they could get their father all the bad tasting liquid in the world.

It seemed silly that school would matter so much. Lee had just started school and already he was learning new things, but not anything that seemed like it could get him the green stuff. It just seemed like stuff that could take up space in his brain full of empty space, or at least that's what Mimi had called it.

"Do you want me to start dinner?" Daniel asked, taking a step towards the kitchen.

Their father stood and grabbed the bottle he had brought home with him off the couch, "You go ahead. I'm going out tonight."

Daniel nodded and moved for the small fridge, opening it to reveal a small collection of food that supplies little to no nutritional value for six growing children.

"Alexis," Sam said quietly. Sam was a shy child who hardly ever spoke, sometimes, Lee forgot he even had a brother named Sam. Mostly he talked to Mimi; even then it was in a hushed whisper. Lee had asked Jared why that was, but Jared refused to talk about it, saying he would when Lee got older.

"Yes Sam?" Alexis answered, just as quietly.

"Where's Jared?"

"You know he's at work. Remember how Jared got a job from the nice man after your birthday?" Sam nodded. "Well, he has to work there almost all day so we have food, but he will be home later today."

"Okay…good."

"What do you guys want? We have some cheese, tomatoes, milk, and turkey," Daniel asked from the fridge.

"Just make whatever you can," was Mimi's reply. Mimi was never a picky eater; she ate whatever was on her plate, even if it had been spoiled for three days, which most of their food was. Sometimes, she would get sick from eating bad food, but that was common among the Cox children.

As Daniel prepared small sandwiches, cutting them in halves or in fourths so each child would get a share, Jared walked in the door, carrying one bag of groceries. Lee ran up to help his brother, hoping that maybe he would get a hug for his efforts, but his oldest brother just shrugged his way through to the kitchen area.

"This is for the rest of the week," Jared explained sharply. "There's some eggs, more milk, a loaf of bread, and two oranges. Try to make it last."

"It's Sunday…are you sure this will last us?" Daniel asked, slightly worried.

"No, but we will just have to go with just breakfast and dinner again. I don't get paid for another two weeks and Dad…well…yeah." Jared took a look around, "Where is he?"

"Going out," Lee said, hoping to appear smart to his elder siblings. It always seemed like he was trying to impress them, but they never noticed their youngest when at home.

"Oh just great."

"Okay Caffery, I don't mean to interrupt on your little story telling adventure, but so far, this has nothing to do with the original question," Lorzano rudely interrupted.

"Oh, I'm sorry, am I boring you?" Caffery replied bitterly. Here he was, telling a man he barely knew his life story and he was completely blowing off the conman.

"Yes you are. Get to the good stuff, you know, the stuff that happened when you weren't five. How can you remember all of that anyway?"

"I have people around to remind me."

"So, are your siblings still alive?"

Neal felt a tug at his heart at the mention of his siblings living. "Only one."

"Oh, now this is getting good. What happened?"

"I can't just skip to the good parts. It's like reading a book at the end and starting backwards. I have to build momentum."

Lorzano sighed. "Why do you do this to me, Caffery?"

"Just trust me; I will get to everything eventually. How many more years do you have left in prison?"

"Two," replied Lorzano with a hateful tone and spat at the ground. "Damn those FBI agents and their stupid rules."

"Preaching to the choir here."

"So, how about you skip this whole little happy fest you have going on in your childhood right now and get to the real angst."

"You are one strange man," Neal replied, shaking his head even though he knew the oily man on the other side of his cell couldn't see him.

"Caffery, Lorzano, what the hell are you two going on about over here?" a third voice asked, coming from the cell on the other side of Lorzano's.

"Perry, you just keep your head out of our business," Lorzano growled at the other man. On Neal's second week of his sentence, Lorzano and Perry had gotten into a little tussle over a woman who wanted neither of them. It ended pretty seriously, with both men in the infirmary for two days, and ever since, the two have remained enemies, never forgetting how they had cruelly broken each other's bones.

"Lorzano, be civil for once," Caffery said with a weary voice and could hear the other man let out a sigh of annoyance at being told what to do.

"So, what's all the jibber gabber about?" Perry repeated his question.

"Caffery's explaining his whole little childhood tragedy story."

"Oh, this should be good."

"What's that supposed to mean?" growled Neal. He was tired of people in jail treating other people's tragedies like some form of entertainment, like a movie or book one would read for fun.

"Every new little slice like you has some sort of sad, sob story that eventually comes pouring out. Ladies love it, they'll be all over you as soon as word gets out. They think that they can 'fix' people, but really, it just means great sex."

"I'm taken already."

"Is she in prison?"

"No." And Neal had thanked the heavens every day for that simple grace. He couldn't ever imagine Kate being in a place like this, she deserved to be free…_they_ deserved to be free.

"Well, who says she's going to find out about a little prison one-night stand."

"I will, and that's all that matters in our relationship."

Perry backed off a little, "Alright, Caffery, whatever you say. So, what little sob story do you have?"

"Caffery's Dad was an alcoholic who couldn't afford to feed his seven children and he has no Mom," Lorzano listed off.

"Not too shabby."

"Please stop grading my life story," Neal requested softly.

"Alright, I'll make sure Perry keeps his damn mouth shut. Now, what happened that made you our favorite little angsty, non-violent Caffery that we love today?" Lorzano asked.

Neal sighed as he recalled one particular bad afternoon. "Well, when I was eight, something happened that…well, it still sticks as a terrible problem to me today."

Well, that's all for now. Sorry this chapter was a little slow…again. But I really just want to get you all introduced to the plot, characters, and basically, what this whole story is about. I don't mean any offense to anyone who has these home issues. My own father is an alcoholic and I help out at the food bank, so I'm not a stranger to these problems. Once again, this story is a combination of my knowledge and past experiences that have happened to me or close friends.

Thank you for the great response. This makes me smile and gets me through each day of high school. Please, review if you have comments/questions/concerns/ or fears. Don't stop the love.


	3. Chapter 3

_6.6 million American children under the age of 18 live in homes with at least one alcoholic parent._

"So Caffery, we've been sitting here for almost forty-five minutes listening to you go on and on about your suckish childhood, but when are we going to get to the real bad stuff," Lorzano said as Neal finished telling them a short story that had happened on his seventh birthday of how his oldest brother knabbed a cake for him.

"I'm going in chronoligical order, didn't you learn about that in school?" Neal said, a smirk going across his lips as he hit a spot that he knew was sensititve among many of the inmates.

"That was low Caffery, pretty low," Lorzano growled.

"Hey, Caffery, Lorzano, don't get into one of your bitch fights again. Seriously, you both need to stop PMSing and just get on with the damn story, Caffery," Perry snapped from his cell.

"Lorzano started it," Neal shouted, pointing a finger at the man in the other cell even though he knew it was pointless to the other man's hidden faces.

"Well, I'm ending it. Now, Caffery, move on from the happy little moments in your childhood and tell us something that will actually keep us entertained. I didn't rob almost four banks to get stuck in here with some bad story tellers for nothing."

"I have to agree for once with Perry, if you're going to be all angsty on us, at least do it with some style. I thought that was your whole straight White Collar thing going on…being classy and so much more high fine and Italien then the rest of us."

Neal groaned and rolled his eyes. Sometimes, the inmates in prison were so ignorant. They had thought for the first two weeks he was Italien for being a teensy weensy bit more classy then the average schmuck that got stuck in jail. "I'm not Italien."

"Oh yeah, my bad. Well, are you going to sit here and argue over what your heritage is, or are you actually going to tell me something that will be useful for life?" Lorzano asked.

"How will my childhood help you in life?"

"It gets me through each day knowing that someone else had a much more screwed up life then I did. Please, don't question my morales, Perry doesn't and he's fine."

"More or less," Perry mumbled from his cell.

"So, what happened to your siblings?" Lorzano said, ignoring the other inmate's comment. "I mean, you said that they had almost all been killed off…want to elaborate a little more?"

Neal sighed. "Well, when I was nine years old, my dad had a breakdown that caused well…the weirdest of my sibling's deaths. Sometimes I still have nightmares, but then again, who doesn't have nightmares over what happened in our past."

"I don't."

"Shut up," Perry growled.

"It was a few months before Jared turned eightteen and he was getting excited about finally leaving the house. He was planning on taking Mimi, Sam, and me to some distant relative's, then coming back for the rest of us since his car could only fit four of us at a time."

WC

"Lee, hurry up, you have ten minutes to get to school!" Alexis called, her brown hair swinging in front of her gaunt face. Over the years, the Cox's food supply had decreased as their father began inviting over his friends for daily poker games. They had tried hiding the food, but that only resulted in four extremely pissed off drunk males.

So, the Cox children were forced to go through each day with only one small meal a day, maybe even nothing at all. They were all thin as a rail and looked as though their bones were about to break through their skin.

Lee had often tried stealing other people's lunches at school, he had gotten quite good at stealing, pick pocketing, and other such activites, but he felt guilty about eating much more then his older siblings, so he stopped. They still didn't know he stole, and knew that they would all disaprove of him, which was one of Lee's worst fears.

"I'm right here, Alexis," Lee said, appearing out of the room he shared with Mimi, Sam, and occasionally Daniel on the nights he was home. Daniel had gotten involved in some things that Jared told him he should never even think about doing and how Daniel was going to end up just like his father.

Lee used to love his brother, Daniel, but recently, his older brother had become a stranger to him, always having a sickly look to him (well, more sickly then usually), and his eyes were often red tinted and his breath smelled of Lee's fathers after he had been out all night.

"Are you going to give me a ride?" Lee asked as he adjusted his ratty backpack strap on his thin and bony shoulder, his almost-black hair falling into his face.

"No, I have to go to the high school early. They're handing out free breakfast if you join some stupid club and come in the morning to pyay or something. Jared and Daniel are doing it as well. I'm going to try and bring something home for you tonight, Mimi and Sam are doing something similar at the middle school."

Lee felt a need to go and steal a lunch today, be a provider for himself, but decided that would be slightly wrong. He had stolen two things already this month and he didn't want to become one of the kids that were forced to stay after school every day. "I'll walk."

"Try not to be late. Dad doesn't appreciate the phone calls from your school," Alexis warned. "And you have all your homework right?" He nodded. "Good, tell me how your science test goes."

"Alright, Alexis, I love you."

"Love you too little brother."

Lee began the short walk to his school. The middle and high school were almost six miles away, but the elementary was only half a mile away form the Cox's house. Lee thought that it was stupid and that they should just all go to the same school so he could walk to school everyday with his siblings, but apparently that wasn't how things worked.

Sometimes on Lee's walks to school, high schoolers would drive by and shout rude comments. He was known all over as the "druggie" boy's brother, but Lee didn't understand what that meant. Some high schoolers shouted rude words at him, words that his father often screamed at him about his mother, but he always thought it was alright when his father did it. When these teenagers did…it was much worse.

One day, five teenagers in a dirty, brown truck drove by and they laughed and shouted the usual insults. One of them had thrown a beer can at him and it had been cut open on the side. A piece of the can had cut Lee on his cheek, almost three inches long. He ran home and cried for almost ten minutes in Alexis's arms.

Neither of them went to school that day as Alexis patched him up with some needle they had found for emergencies. When Jared got him, he had been furious and had yelled at Daniel for a long time, telling him he was bringing Lee pain and humiliation, along with the rest of them. Jared had even hit his brother across the temple, knocking his brother out for almost thirty minutes.

That had been almost two months ago and Jared had promised him that nobody would bother him anymore. His brother's promise had followed through, he was never borther by the annoying teenagers again, and if he did, all he had to do was telll Jared and they weren't there again.

Lee approached his school and immediately went to the bench outside of the front door. Some fifth graders were laughing obnoxiously loud near him while some fourth grade girls stared on. Lee had a few friends in third grade, but most of them took the bus and were usually late to school.

Lee had been sitting down for two minutes almost before the bell rang and he, among the other elementary school kids, walked into their classrooms.

It was half past ten o' clock and Lee was in the middle of his last math problem of his test when the intercom turned on.

"Could you send Lee Cox down to the office? He will be leaving for the day," the receptionist said, her voice crackling over the bad intercom.

Mrs. Mason turned to the young boy and said in her quiet voice. "Lee, turn in your test now. You can finish it tomorrow."

Lee hurridely circled 'A' as his final answer and said, "Actually I'm done."

She nodded and accepted it as he turned it in, filing it in the correct area on her desk. "Have a good rest of the day and we will see you tomorrow."

Lee ran down to the office, his backpack hardly zipped up. Sometimes, Jared or Alexis would come to pick him up early and they would walk around town and spend a dollar or so on sweets and sit on the ground, counting cars.

It was a rare treat, but it still happened and that's what Lee had in his mind when he raced down to the office. What laid there, was the exact opposite.

His father with Lee's similar hazel eyes and black hair turned around, letting out a small grin. "Lee, we're going home. Your Aunt is very sick and she wants to see you."

Lee knew that was a lie. His aunt lived in Oklahoma and she didn't even knew they existed except for Jared. He knew that lies were bad, but Jared told him that their father was a bad man, so it made sense to his nine-year-old mind.

The receptonist waved them out, her white hair moving in the small wind from the outside. Lee waved back, then was a little too forcefully dragged outside by his much larger father.

"What's going on?" He asked in a timid voice.

"Something happened at home. Your siblings are at home."

Lee's stomach dropped at that. Did something happen to his siblings? Were they hurt? Was his father going to hurt him?

The ride home was short, but tension filled as every 'What if' situation ran through Lee's head at least ten times each. Not one of them ended very happily.

As Lee's father pulled up to the house, Lee exited the car and ran inside, letting out a sigh of relief as he saw all five of his siblings sitting on the couch. They looked half-starved and bored, but that wasn't anything out of the ordinary.

"What's going on?" Lee asked, breathing slightly faster then normal as panic took over him. He didn't like not knowing what was going on.

"Dad's screwed up as hell," Daniel muttered. "And now he's going to have a little bitchy whining fest with us."

"Daniel, don't say that in front of him. He's nine," Jared scolded. Daniel rolled his eyes as their father slammed the front door as he entered.

"Children, we have something to discuss!" their father shouted as he marched over.

"Dad, what is it? I was in the middle of an important Chemistry test," Alexis said in what Jared called her "whiny bitch" voice.

"Shut up!" their father said and took a menacing step forward. Alexis flinched and shut her mouth. "Now, I have a very private storage of…sweets. Somebody, took something from my sweets, because they're not there anymore."

"You took us out of school because somebody took your weed?" Daniel asked in a disbelieving voice.

"Danny, shut up," Mimi growled and punched her brother softly in the side. Sam pressed his face against his twin's shoulders, looking ready to cry.

"You little shit, you want to say that to my face?" their father growled, taking Daniel by his shirt and pulling him out of his seat.

Alexis and Jared stood up, Lee ran over to Mimi and Sam, tears streaming down his face. "Dad, what the hell are you doing?" Jared shouted.

Their father ignored him. "I've seen what you and your friends do. Smoking up outside. Bet you wanted to try what the big boys did? Huh. You little shit."

Daniel shoved his father away. "What are you going to do about? You old ass, you can't even get off the couch to get a damn job and get us money!"

"You shut your mouth!"

"Daniel, you're going too far, he's going to hurt you," Alexis whispered, clutching Jared's arm in a death grip.

"Dad, you are starving your children. Lee is going to blow away and he's only nine. You are going to kill us! So yeah, I admit it, I stole all your damn weed and smoked it up. But I did it so you can focus and realize you are going to kill us!" Daniel screamed, his face going red from rage.

Their father's face turned equally red and he approached Daniel and hit him square across the temple, knocking his son out cold.

Jared ran up and grabbed his father before he could take another punch. "Dad! What the hell! What the f*** was that?"

Their father stormed out, leaving the Cox children traumatized and worried as they gathered around Daniel, whose head had begun bleeding.

Lee crawled over and Alexis took him into her arms, cradling his head against her shoulder. "It's alright, you don't have to see this." She carried him off into their room.

Lee heard how Jared was going to take Daniel to someone's house and get him fixed up, but Alexis closed the door and Lee drifted off into sleep.

WC

"What happened to him?" Perry asked, his voice much softer now.

"Child protective services. Jared had taken him to a friend who had a nurse for a Mom. But then it didn't exactly work out, and she called the police. They took Daniel away. Heard he offed himself some three months later. I didn't get to go to the funeral," Neal explained, his voice getting softer and softer.

"Are you okay, Caffery?" Lorzano asked.

"Just…give me a minute," Neal said, but all three knew he would need more then a minute.

WC

Hm…don't exactly know how this will work out. I realize this may be a cliché story…but I'm trying as hard as I can to make it not be a cliché. Got any advice, I'm way open to it.

Also, I'm sort of busy right now, I have to deal with some friend issues. So, don't expect an update until…Wednesday? I love you all, thank you for reviewing/alerting/favoriting.

Comments/questions/fear/concerns? Put them in a review.


	4. Chapter 4

_The leading cause of death for individuals between 2 and 34 years old is motor vehicle crashes._

"Caffery, it's been almost twenty minutes, can we please stop this little intermission," Perry complained. Neal looked up from his hands, which he had been scratching small mosquitos bite on his ring finger on his left hand.

"Sorry, we can keep on going with the story," Neal said softly, not feeling in the mood to continue his story, but knew that Lorzano and Perry would never leave him alone for the rest of his four years unless he did.

"Finally, but can you just skip over to the next big event…like how did your other siblings die? Was it like, one by one, or what?"

"I'm going for a fire," Lorzano said and Perry snickered, but Neal's voice cut them both off.

"You two better shut the hell up if I'm going to continue. Right now, I'm the only source of entertainment you have, so if you really want to enjoy it, then I suggest you not make such rude comments."

There was silence, then both inmates mumbled, "Sorry."

Neal sighed and ran his hands over his face. "It's alright, I suppose."

"So, what happened to your other brother and sisters?" Perry asked. "Where they all shoot or did your dad killed them?"

"No, it was a little less complicated then that. Something that happens a lot, but it still is a big deal," Neal said.

"Told you, fire," Lorzano whispered.

"Jared was now eighteen and he could legally take care of us, so one day when our father was out, Jared packed us up and well…left. That was the worst mistake of our lives."

WC

Lee's eyelids were dragging themselves down, he could feel the tug of sleep on them, but the ten-year-old fought against the pull. Alexis had told him that it would be alright if he fell asleep, but Lee didn't want to. He could feel the tension in the car as Jared drove down the dark roads, the four Cox siblings shoved in the back.

Jared had shaken him awake, thrown him a small bag and told him to pack all the things he owned. Lee had followed his brother's orders, and then followed his siblings out into the car, still confused on what was happening.

They didn't leave their father a note or even call him, which worried Lee a little, but he knew that his father was a bad man and a part of him enjoyed the fact that Jared was driving them farther and farther away from their father with every minute that passed.

"Where are we going?" Mimi asked in her timid voice. Her long black hair fell in her pale face. She and Sam sat right next to Lee, and he could feel the shudders in Sam's breathing as he tried to control his crying. Sam had always been the weakest one in the Cox family, both emotionally and physically.

"To your aunt's," was Jared's gruff reply. Ever since word of Daniel's death, Jared had slowly retreated within himself, barely talking to anyone, especially their family. He dropped out of high school and took two jobs, but never bought anything. According to Alexis, Jared was becoming a selfish jerk who would grow up to be alone, but Lee still loved his brother.

"In Oklahoma?" Mimi questioned further.

"Yes. She's nice and has money, but more importantly, she hates Dad, so she won't rat us out."

"Does she know we're coming?" Alexis asked from the shotgun seat. Over the years, she had become more of a mother figure then of a sister to Lee. She helped him on his homework, dressed him for school, and even combed his hair on some days. Lee loved all his family, but somewhere in his heart, he loved Alexis even more.

"No, but she loved me last time Dad and Mom dragged me down there. I'm sure she'll take us in, and if not, I have a friend."

"The last time you visited was when you were one, of course she would love you," Alexis growled. "You really didn't think this through didn't you?"

"Please don't fight," Lee mumbled from the back, tired of hearing fighting everywhere he went. Now that they were gone from their father, he never wanted to hear arguments again, even small ones.

"We're not fighting," Jared said, but Lee could see his face in the mirror and Jared looked as Mimi said, pissed off.

"Just…be happy, please," Lee begged.

"We are happy, we're going to a better place."

"How? Home was happy." Even as the words left his mouth, Lee didn't believe it. His home was terrible, there was no food, the drinking water was green, there were rats, and his father always had his friends over who smoked and sometimes put out their cigarettes on Jared which hurt his brother a lot.

"Lee, you don't exactly know what you're talking about," Jared growled.

"Lee, do you want to borrow my jacket to sleep on?" Alexis asked, trying to keep the peace, knowing how if a fight broke out right now, the rest of the car ride would be hell.

"Sure," Lee muttered, giving up on a cause that had been lost from the start. Alexis handed over her soft, warm jacket that Lee had always loved. He placed in against the window, snuggled up, and closed his eyes. The last words he heard were,

"Are we sure this is right?"

Lee heard the sounds of breaks, and crashing metal, followed by screams of pain that sounded strangely like his four siblings that were in the car with him. It took a few seconds for Lee to come to before he realized his legs were in a burning fury of pain and his shoulder was in a location that he had never seen before.

His father had always talked about car accidents before, hell, Lee had even seen two, but this was the first one that he had ever been in, and it scared him.

The car was dented and misshaped beyond repair. The metal walls were closing in on him, the part of his door was so close to his face that Lee's nose almost scraped the side of it.

Lee looked around for his siblings, and spotted each one, looking worse after each time he looked.

Sam was bleeding from his head, blood pouring down his face, and a white shiny bone was sticking out his arm. Lee reached to touch him, since Sam was right next to him, but the movement caused too much pain for the small boy, so he sat there, just watching.

Mimi was worse off then her twin. Her chest had a weird shape to it, and she didn't appear to be moving, not even to breathe. Her head was crushed in on the right side, and her eyes were closed, but Mimi's entire face was covered in blood. Even though Lee didn't want to admit it, he knew that his youngest sister was now dead, and she was lying right next to him.

Lee couldn't quite see Alexis, but he saw movement from her area, so he knew that at least she was alive…for right now. Looking over at Jared, he almost threw up right there in the seat.

Jared was leaned forward against the steering wheel, blood splattered against the dashboard and window shield. Jared had several shards of glass sticking out of his arms and a large gash going down his temple, along with several other gashes on his head. His legs were lost among a jumble of twisted metal and something was sticking out of Jared's side. Lee felt sick just looking at his brother, not knowing whether he was alive or not.

"Anyone…" Lee gasped, hating the silence as he was surrounded by so many broken people that he loved. The stench of blood and death was thick in the air, and the young child almost choked on it.

"Help…someone…" Lee managed to say, black edges creeping in around the edges of his vision. Some lights were flashing outside and he could hear shouting, but his mind was wrapped around the fact that he was here…trapped…

The car seemed to surround him, closing in and keeping him locked in its tight grips with the bodies of his siblings. Tears streamed down his face as Lee began to struggle to break free, but the pain kept him restrained.

Lee sat there, feeling every one of his fears closing in on him, his demons laughing at the poor boy as he sat there, stranded. This was the last conscious thought Lee had before drifting off into the abyss.

Hm, slightly shorter then usual, but I've been busy, doing shit that teenagers like me do. So, you like? No like? Cliffhanger too much for you? Suck it up, leave me a review, and well, stay cool.

Questions/comments/fear/concerns, put 'em in a review.


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